Chynna Phillips Recalls Seeing Her Dad Go Into Cardiac Arrest From Drugs

Lauren Novak November 11, 8:04 pm

Chynna and JOhn Phillips collage — Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for alice + olivia; Jeff Hochberg/Getty Images

Chynna Phillips recently appeared on Cheryl Burke’s podcast iHeartRadio’s Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans to talk about her experience on Dancing with the Stars, as well as some of her traumatic past. Phillips opened up about seeing her father, the late John Phillips of the Mamas & the Papas, go into cardiac arrest because of his drug use. Unfortunately, watching her father’s struggles did not deter her from drugs and she eventually dealt with her own addiction for many years.

She said that she had gone to visit her father in New York when she was around six years old. He had promised her they would travel to Disney World but it never happened. Instead, they were in his apartment in Manhattan when she witnessed him going into cardiac arrest and watched his skin turn a yellow-green color.

Singer Chynna Phillips arrives at 2014 UCLA Visionary Ball at the Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons Hotel on October 30, 2014 in Beverly Hills, California

Valerie Macon/Getty Images

“That’s when I found out my father had, you know, a very severe addiction to heroin,” she shared. “And my father is a notorious drug addict. I mean, even, you know, people like Keith Richards had a hard time hanging out with my dad. They had to stop hanging out with my father. And that says a lot. That says a lot.”

Ultimately, he passed away in 2001. While she said she is at peace with his death, she does wish she could have had more extensive healing conversations with him before he died. She said, “I definitely feel like I had some closure, but it wasn’t the closure that I could have had if I had had the strength to just say, hey, Dad, you know obviously we didn’t have much time together in my formative years, you know, and I just have so many questions, like how did you feel about the divorce, How did you feel about not being with me, not being able to watch me grow up? How did you feel about missing my birthdays and missing you know, my missing every Christmas? And not to make him feel guilty, but just like I would have loved to have known his thoughts on that.”

American musicians Michelle and John Phillips (1935 - 2001) husband and wife, of the American folk pop group The Mamas And The Papas, October 5, 1967.

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Phillips also opened up about what her relationship is like now with her mother, Michelle Phillips, who is 80. “We have a really nice relationship now; my mom can be the warmest individual,” she added. “She’ll take her shirt off her back for anybody, and you know, she’ll take in every little lost animal. But then there’s also this real, like, Dynasty icy side to my mom, you know what I mean? Like you don’t want to double cross my mom because she’ll let you have it.”

Chynna Phillips-Baldwin and mother Michelle Phillips attend the 17th Annual Genesis Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on March 15, 2003 in Beverly Hills, California

Vince Bucci/Getty Images

“But I love my mom and she’s been nothing but supportive to me,” she continued. “But we’ve struggled. You know, I’m not gonna lie. She doesn’t love the whole California preaching thing. And I think that she thinks I’m a little too outspoken, and I think it embarrasses her a little bit. Feels a little exposed, you know, even though they’re my stories.” Listen to the entire episode here.